What a horrific situation for Univ Georgia's Greek Life. An administrator killed herself on campus after it was discovered that she had embezzled over $1 mil from the university's Greek Life accounts over the course of a decade.

I was wondering if this story would get shared here. I worked in the GLO for two years during that time frame. While I am shocked that Lasina would do this, the oversight piece is not surprising. I don't have vivid memories of lack of oversight or anything on Claudia's part, but can totally see how Lasina was given complete control over those accounts.

Such a sad ending. Those who I've talked to and knew the people involved are all shocked.

This is shocking.
And from so many different perspectives.
Why did Ms. Shamp never review bank accounts? Did the Panhellenic or IFC treasurers evern able to look at bank statements? If there were supposed to be UGA rules regarding the money, why were they ignored?
Why was UGA so reluctant to send out any news of this? Well, I can understand why, but apparently the Red & Black had to pull teeth to get any info. Good for them.
During my years as a reporter, I always wondered how some reporters could ferret out financial shenanigans. Heck, one of the reasons I became a reporter was because I was no good any any kind of math, much less reading financial statements.

I cannot fathom this lack of oversight across the board. And then to see that people were also misusing p-cards and other forms of payment? Where is the training? Where is accounts payable? Where are the auditors? I had jobs on campus’s where I couldn’t order an extra pizza for students without massive scrutiny. This is bananas!

This is an awful ending. And now the policies moving forward will probably be overkill for all those handling budgets.

What in the actual F?! Sticky notes? Blank checks? No budget? Zero oversight? Are you kidding me?

Quote:

In early July, a report of theft was filed with the UGA Police Department. As police began interviewing members of the Greek Life Office (GLO) and Evans’ family, other officers, along with the university’s Internal Auditing Division, sifted through a decade of bank statements, receipts, checks and expenses. The investigation revealed that Shamp, Assistant Greek Life Director Elizabeth Pittard and other staff never set budgets or tracked expenses, with “misplaced trust,” often relying on verbal confirmation from Evans or numbers written on sticky notes.
.....

Pittard told investigators Evans would sometimes write the available funds in the Panhellenic Council account on a sticky note and leave it on her desk. Evans would tell Pittard the PHC “broke even” when they discussed funds after sorority recruitment, according to UGAPD documents.

The July 29 IAD report said Shamp failed to provide “any form of monitoring procedures over the financial activity of GLO.” There were no budgets for the organizations managed by the GLO, and no mechanism to monitor and investigate unusual activity.

Blank checks Shamp and Pittard signed were later found to have been made out to Evans. Neither supervisor reviewed bank statements — Shamp told police she simply trusted Evans, whom she worked with for almost 20 years.

Bank statements also listed “a large number of purchases” from stores such as T.J. Maxx, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Big Lots, Target, Kroger, Sam’s Club, Walmart and various department stores totaling about $156,000 that “appear to be unauthorized” on the IFC, PHC and UGA Miracle accounts.
.....

Evans made 323 ATM transactions from the PHC account, 361 transactions from the IFC account and 64 transactions from the UGA Miracle account. Of the 748 ATM transactions, 713 were for the maximum amount of $600. Video files from Synovus ATMs indicate Evans made multiple cash withdrawals from the Tate Plaza Synovus ATM, just a short walk from the GLO in the Tate Student Center.
......

Mason Black, assistant director of the GLO and adviser to the IFC, was not an authorized check signer on any accounts, but he told investigators he shared his purchasing card with students who wanted to make IFC-related purchases, and did not review the purchases.

I'm always interested (and amazed) when I read stories about embezzlement cases because it's always the same story over and over again: A trusted employee and absolutely no oversight by anyone in the organization. This happens all the time, whether it's a business, church, non-profit, whatever, it's always the same scenario.

What I want to know is why the so-called Director was allowed to "retire" and the so-called Assistant Director was allowed to "resign"? Why weren't they both fired?

I cannot fathom this lack of oversight across the board. And then to see that people were also misusing p-cards and other forms of payment? Where is the training? Where is accounts payable? Where are the auditors? I had jobs on campusís where I couldnít order an extra pizza for students without massive scrutiny. This is bananas!

This is an awful ending. And now the policies moving forward will probably be overkill for all those handling budgets.

All of this. I work in K-12 education but same. I can't even charge a pack of gum for my students.

__________________"Remember that apathy has no place in our Sorority." - Kelly Jo Karnes, Pi

I'm not that surprised. At our college, most administrators don't do any actual oversight work (or any work, really) either. Our president's office made a massive, obvious, continuing clerical error that nobody involved caught - not the president, not our financial administrator, not our board, nobody - which left us owing the state millions.

If someone came here to pitch a movie concept that one of the top Greek panhellenics in the country where every recruitment detail is carefully watched, timed, and noted could have someone embezzling this much money for this long, we'd have laughed her out of here.

And yet here we are.

__________________"Let us found a society that shall be kind alike to all and think more of a girl's inner self and character than of her personal appearance." Sarah Ida Shaw

If someone came here to pitch a movie concept that one of the top Greek panhellenics in the country where every recruitment detail is carefully watched, timed, and noted could have someone embezzling this much money for this long, we'd have laughed her out of here.

And yet here we are.

Bingo!

__________________I live in Fantasyland and I have waterfront property.